Existential Themes in the Catholic View: The Synthesis of the Short Story and Journalistic Report in Smiljana Rendić’s Prose

Tematika suvremene egzistencije uglavnom iz urbanoga milieua, značenje katoličke vjere i morala za bitne životne odluke, pitanja smisla u kontekstu osobnih iskustava, napose na planu ljubavne i obiteljske problematike, razvoj od djeteta do odrasle i zrele osobe, psihološke krize i moralne dvojbe sadržajna su osnova i podloga na kojoj autorica razvija svoje proze. Riječ je o dijaloškim prozama u Ich-formi – opisuju susrete i kontakte kazivačice i glavnoga lika. One imaju sve formalne značajke (kratke) priče: dijaloge, naraciju, radnju, karakterizacije, šture opise, stilska sredstva, dočaravanje atmosfere, problemska žarišta, kompoziciju, efektne i često otvorene završetke, ideju. Ujedno, te proze odgovaraju i novinarskom žanru reportaže, događaju se „hic et nunc“ (1960-ih godina, u Hrvatskoj, u socijalističkom društvu), moralno i duhovno poučavaju čitatelja, i kao takve su i objavljivane. Reklo bi se da izviru iz stvarnih susreta, no izražena estetiziranost/literariziranost i snažna intelektualnost, psihologizacija i pregnantna razmatranja moralnih dilema uzdižu sadržaj ispripovijedanoga do općega, umjetničkoga značenja. Ujedno, te su priče i didaktične. Moralne i vjerske postavke povezane s konkretnom egzistencijom ponekad zastupa određeni lik, a u pravilu ih strogo zastupa, obrazlaže i u tijelu priče obrazlaže i sama pripovjedačica. Osjeća se neposrednost i svježina aktualiteta, a život je prikazan bez friziranja, pri čemu se hrabro ulazi i u najosjetljivija pitanja i prijepore, ali uvijek i sa stajališta katoličkoga naučavanja te u svjetlu Biblije i judeokršćanske predaje.
Modern existential topics taken mainly from the urban milieu, real meaning of the Catholic faith and morality for essential life decisions, questions of human sense in the context of personal experiences, particularly of love and family issues, then maturation, psychological crises and moral dilemmas are substantive basis on which the author builds her prosaic pieces of writing. They are prose texts with dialogues, written in Ich-Form – presenting encounters and contacts of the narrator to the main characters. The texts have all formal features of (short) stories: dialogue, narration, plot, characterisation, short descriptions, stylistic qualities, evocation of atmosphere, focal points, composition, effective and, often, open ends, or idea. At the same time congruous to the journalistic genre of reportage, they happened “hic et nunc” (in 1960-ies, in Croatia, in the Socialist society), while morally and spiritually instructing the reader, and were publicised as such. You could say they be derived from the real encounters, though the expressed aesthetic and literary profile as well as strong intellectuality, psychological attitude and concise reflections on moral dilemmas raise the content of the recounted elements to the level of universal, artistic meaning. These stories are didactic too. Moral and religious attitudes are sometimes spoken out by individual existences, but as a rule they are represented, explained and in the ’body’ of stories argued by the narrator herself. We can sense immediacy and freshness of actuality, the real life represented without embellishing. Boldly are tackled even most delicate questions and controversies, but always also from the Catholic doctrine’s standpoint as well as in the light of Bible and Judeo-Christian tradition.